Yeah, anyway:
As I've mentioned in the first post, Kazik Staszewski (whom you may remember from the post about Kult) was going to be one o the most heavily showcased artist around here. So, without further a due, let's get to the second band Kazik co-founded:
KAZIK NA ŻYWO
Founded in 1991, KNŻ (as the band is usually called) played mostly a synthesis between rap and metal. They are often referred to as the polish version of Rage Against The Machine (though I wouldn't go that far in comparisons: they are just playing the same genre really, but, you know, as a polish proverb goes "
in the fishless sea, even a crayfish can seem a fish").
The band had a line-up op vocals, two guitars, bass, drums and synths. As far as I know Kazik was the only member to stay through all of the bands incarnations.
At first, they were supposed to be Kazik's solo backing band (hence the name – Kazik na Żywo – which means in polish "Kazik Live"), but that soon changed and KNŻ became a full-fledged band.
Just as it was the case with any band led by Kazik, KNŻ was known for it’s anti-establishment lyrics (just this time around it was aimed at the people who were creating the newly formed Polish state in the early 90s).
During their original run, they released three studio albums (each one of them very good) and one live album.
If you're less into standard rock or rapcore, then just skip right ahead to the last album in this post.
If not, then let's go:
Na żywo, ale w studio
The first album was credited to "Kazik", as it was still supposed to be Kazik's backing band. Many of the songs featured here were previously released on Kazik's solo albums or Kult albums. But there are a couple of originals.
The album's title means "
Live, but in the studio".
Let's get to the songs:
Artyści
This song has one of the most well-known Kazik lyrics, those being:
All artists are prostitutes
In the vapours of improved cigarettes
In the vapours of vodka
The ones of lesser quality are cheaper
And the better ones are more expensive
I don't know how to translate this correctly, but in Polish he sings this twice – the first time around "the better ones and the worse ones" he means the joints and vodka, but the second time around here actually means the artists.
100 000 000
This one is by most thought to be aimed at Lech Wałęsa, the first polish president after the communist rule, Peace Nobel Price winner in 1983. Before his presidential campaign he said that everybody should receive 100 million zloties from the state (keep in mind, there was a roaming inflation going on at the time. The 100M is more like 10 thousand zloties today, which makes about 3 thousand american dollars), in order to start anew after the economic system change. People understood it as a campaign promise ("I'll give everybody 100M!"), and so after he was elected there was a lot of hate going on about not keeping that promise.
The song's lyrics are from the perspective of a factory worker (Wałęsa himself was a factory worker during the 80s, up until he became the leader of Solidarność), who is seeing the prices go up and down in shops and stores, and his frustration is growing, up to the point where in the chorus he's screaming "Wałęsa! Give me my hundred millions!".
I honestly think the song its not aimed at Wałęsa (well, at him too, but not in the way most people think – it's just that it's a dumb thing to promise, right?), but rather at all the dumbasses who actually thought that the 100M thing was gonna happen.
On the album a few songs later, they make a reprise, this time called:
300 000 000
Also, the name Wałęsa is change here to Waldemar, which is referring to Waldemar Pawlak, who was the prime minister for a moment in the 90s.
Celina
If you remember this one was featured on the Kult album "Tata Kazika" (Kazik's Dad). This time around a bit faster and harder.
Overall, this is the weakest KNŻ album out of the three. So let's get to the better ones:
Porozumienie ponad podziałami
Their second studio album was released in 1995, and this time around it was already credited to "Kazik Live" as a band, and not well, "Kazik and the Band". This LP contains some off their best known songs and is a good take-up run for what was to come with the last album.
My favourite (or second favourite) KNŻ song is on it, that being the second track:
Nie zrobimy wam nic złego
Damn.
The lyrics are quite pictorial:
We won't do you no harm, just hand him over to us
It don't matter much, whether he's dead or alive
I went to the south part of the borough
The part where you can still walk safely during the day
All around the rabble was was screaming and shouting
What will happen if they won't convert, and reflection, reason won't come soon?
But you know, some people take joy in this stuff
Because the truth is white, but black is the power
And it's for the best, when the crowds just work, devour and sleep
And procreate sometimes
Then they don't have time to think a single thought
They just calmly watch and listen
What do the crooks and criminals tell them in their show
This show has more and more viewers every day
But when you look at it from another point of view
The rabble likes most to see
When you piss on the corpses and you tear apart your peers with teeth
Who votes for this? Who votes for that?
What is this song even all about?
What is this nice little poem about
Nobody can remember
Hey! If you'd look from my point of view:
Who had broken his vows?
It ain't polite to whisper:
I
Am
A Liar!
We won't do you no harm, just hand him over to us
It don't matter much, whether he's dead or alive
The police never ventures to the north side of town
After all nobody wants to put his hands into burning coal
There's a poster on the street:
A nude babe with a machine gun in her hands
Is shooting up Arabs
That's what I call a symbol of a nation
The American nation, if I'm allowed to say so
After all we all have to watch out not to insult anybody
Every minority has it's own rights
And so on, and so forth, that's a hell of a game
Armies clashing in the name of God
Just remember one thing son:
**** military service
Another great one is
Stałem się sprawcą zgonu mego taty z powodu mej dumy z brata
Yeah, the title is long af. It's basically saying "I became the reason my father died, because I was so proud of my brother".
The song is in the genre of "funny songs" rather than serious. The lyrics talk about a young boy from a traditionalist family. His brother is (according to their parents) basically a bum, because he smokes joints and plays the guitar. Their father kicks him out of their house. But the narrator is extremely proud of his brother because he's amazing at playing guitar and has lots of friends and a girlfriend. The father makes the narrator go to university and all, in order for him to become a lawyer or a doctor. But then after a while the narrator tells his parents that he's had enough of this, and that actually all he wants to do in life is play the saxophone – which results in his father having a heart attack.
Tata Dilera
"A dealer's father"
The song is from the perspective of a father who is in court testifying, because his son is accused of dealing drugs.
It's sort of a social commentary. In the 90s amphetamine was the biggest thing in Poland. Actually Poland became a sort of storage/go-to place for the European amphetamine market.
The funny part is that if you look closely to the lyrics, it's actually the father who is the dealer.
This was actually my favourite song when I was about 12 or 13.
Dziewczyny
"Girls"
This one is from the perspective of a guy who meets a girl, and starts hanging out with her, even though all his friends tell him she ain't no good.
I really like the Black Sabbath-ish riff in this one.
To the next album:
Las Maquinas De La Muerte
After a four year break from recording, KNŻ released this beauty in 1999. For sure their best one, as there's the most sonic experimentation. Finally Kazik Na Żywo came close to Kazik's work in Kult.
Just listen:
W Południe
The song is about a polish folklore creature called
Lady Midday. Who was thought to kill farmers at noon, when they were in the fields.
The whole song is from the perspective of a farmer who is meditating about the fact that one day he will have to meet the creature, and that she will be the end of him.
He's talking about how was his farm life, about the women he met, about how will he divide his land between his sons, and then he gets to the part where he just keeps repeating the phrase: "And then I'll just follow Lady Midday".
Pure beauty.
This was one of the songs that made me actually interested in music. This haunting melody being countered by the dark (but new-wavish) backing track really spoke to my early-teens mind.
Prawda
"Prawda" means "The Truth"
I'll try to translate the meaning, the words themselves are untranslatable in the phrasing needed to make it poetic (in any meaning of the word)
The first one cries
The other one laughs
The first one steals
What the other one sows
We don't all bet our hopes on the same horse
The first one cries
The other one laughs
The slavery of a human being is just about that
He has to have more than he needs
Neither can you weight it, nor measure it
Neither can you weight it, nor measure it
Neither can you weight it, nor measure it
Neither can you weight it, nor measure it
But I want, I want, I crave
But I want, I want, I crave
But I want, I want, I crave
To finally know the truth
It doesn't matter whether you
Want more, or you want less
Your treasure lies right there
Next to your heart
So don't cry when you'll get left out of the loop
So don't cry when you'll get left out of the loop
Remember that the last will be first
Oh, I want, I want, I crave
Oh, I want, I want, I crave
Oh, I want, I want, I crave
To finally know the truth
Now, I think I'll just let them play, listen to this stuff:
Andrzej Gołota
The title track
Łysy Jedzie do Moskwy
Another protest song
Too bad that after this one they didn't release an album for over 15 years. They really had it going somewhere here.
Anyway, that's it for today, go away now